Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A College Football-esque NFL Overtime?
There are many different arguments both for and against the current NFL overtime format. Some people are against it because it doesn't allow for both teams to get the ball most of the time and can usually come down to whoever wins the coin toss in overtime.
With the recent talk and debate of a college football playoff, a la the NFL's system, becoming more and more common thanks to President Barrack Obama's thoughts on the matter, the reverse can be said of the overtime system of the two leagues. With everyone and their brother demanding a college football playoff, it has become all too common for people to also demand a college football-esque NFL overtime.
Dare we hope to get both of these changes soon? And do we even want a college football-esque NFL overtime system?
For the most part, every argument that many of the people who are pro-current NFL overtime system have can be flipped on its head and used to also support the college football version and system. Defense is just as big a part of the game as offense? This is very true, but in the college football version of overtime, both the offense and defense must play at least one set of downs or a drive.
The teams played all game to set themselves up for the sudden death overtime system? Yeah, well that's well and great, but just think of how the college football version of overtime further increases the drama and basically has it so that the game must continue to go on just as it were prior to the end of regulation. Sure, there will be slightly altered strategies since there's no kicking off or punting really, but it certainly feels sudden death worthy and final enough to be called an overtime.
Not to try and step on the NFL's history and legacy or anything, but honestly, sometimes change just turns out to be for the better. Look at instant replay. That was debated up and down for who knows how long until it was finally built into the game and look how much better the game is for it.
Whether or not the overtime system gets changed or is even brought into the forefront any time soon is really of no matter. Sometimes we task our agendas with one side of an argument or another so that we forget just how much we enjoy the game as it is. Will anyone really stop watching the NFL if their version of overtime isn't changed to or kept as it is? Of course not!
So while it's perfectly okay and warranted to have a strong and often times passionate opinion on these subjects, we should all just really agree to disagree on them and ultimately be concerned with enjoying the game no matter how it turns out.
After all, don't we have a Super Bowl to be looking forward to and talking about coming up pretty soon?